Prosecutor puts video about monster truck accident on YouTube

The Public Prosecutor posted a video on YouTube in which it explains its position in the appeal trial on a fatal monster truck accident in Haaksbergen in 2014. The Council for the Judiciary is surprised that this video was made public even before the appeal happened, NOS reports.

In 2014 Mario D. crashed his monster truck into a crowd of spectators at a festival in Haaksbergen. Three people were killed and 28 others were injured. Mario D. was sentenced to 15 months in prison and banned from driving a monster truck for five years. He appealed.

In the video on YouTube, advocate-general Joep Simmelink says that D. carries a high level of liability and that this case is too serious to be settled with only community service. D.'s lawyer wants him to be acquitted, or only sentenced to community service. According to the defense, the accident was caused by a technical defect in the monster truck.

It is very unusual for the Public Prosecutor to put a video like this online, Barbara den Uijl, spokesperson for the Council for the Judiciary, said to NOS. "Here the Prosecutor already makes statements about the question of guilt and the level of punishment before the appeal. In an appeal a case must be reexamined completely", she said. According to the Council, parties involved should only make their opinions public in a trial, then the other party can respond.

The Public Prosecutor told newspaper AD that the video was put online because it is important that attention is paid to the appeal trial. No new information was revealed in the video, the Prosecutor stressed. "Otherwise we would never have published it."

The Council for the Judiciary will decide whether the Public Prosecutor will be reprimanded for publishing this video.